Kripashankar returns to Mumbai, claims innocence

Mumbai: Congress` former Mumbai unit chief Kripashankar Singh, whose properties were on Friday attached on orders of a court hearing a corruption case against him, Saturday returned to the city and asserted his innocence.

Singh, who was not traceable on Friday, also apologised for his son`s behaviour towards media.

As the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police along with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) continued the raids and a team of officials interrogated Singh for several hours, the Congress leader claimed innocence and said that he has done nothing wrong.

"I am not guilty, I have done nothing wrong. I will fight as per law," he told reporters here.

"The media is wrongly targeting me and my family. I don`t own all those properties as are being shown," he added.

Singh also apologised for the action of his son, Narendra Mohan who had made obscene gestures to reporters covering the raids on Friday.

The raids on Singh`s properties began late Thursday and as many as 12 properties owned by him and his family were attached during the raids on Friday.

Singh also contended that a public interest litigation (PIL) alone cannot be used to level charges against him and that the said allegations have wrecked his career.

The Bombay High Court had, last week, ordered the attachment of property after hearing a public interest litigation filed by social activist Sanjay Tiwari.

Following the court directions, the SIT lodged a first information report at Nirmal Nagar police station in Khar on February 29.

The SIT was directed to probe the assets accumulated by Singh and his family as per the allegations in Tiwari`s PIL and the state Anti-Corruption Bureau`s report of March 30 (2011) detailing the assets accumulated by them.

Accordingly, the SIT would probe all the movable and immovable assets of Singh and family, including land, flats, shops, bungalows, commercial premises, vehicles, bank accounts, etc.

Soon after the high court order last week, Singh had resigned from the coveted post of Mumbai Congress chief.